News

L3Harris supply weapons parts to Israel – they must be opposed

Israel is continuing it’s brutal and callous attack on Gaza, committing more atrocities and it is now widening its sphere of targets to Lebanon. So far, they have killed over 42,000 people in Palestine and bombed hospitals, schools and refugee camps. All with the assistance of many arms companies who are profiting from this death and destruction.

L3 Harris are one such company and a particularly monstrous one. They make bomb release mechanisms for Israeli fighter jets including the F35, some specially adapted for Israel’s use with their own munitions. The F-35 jet is one of Israel’s method of attack on Gaza, having been used to kill thousands of innocent civilians. L3Harris also sell other military equipment to Israel, including components for the Joint Direct Attack munitions, which have been used to bomb Gaza.

Join us on November 29^th to oppose L3Harris’ complicity in Israel’s inhumane bombardment of Gaza. Full details here and you can also share the Facebook event here.

The human rights abusing Saudi regime cannot be allowed to host the World Cup

Saudi Arabia is set to host the 2034 World Cup even though the regime does not meet FIFA requirements for protecting human rights including when it hosted the 2023 Club World Cup. Migrant workers are already dying in the country, political dissent can lead to a death sentence and homosexuality is illegal. There is also the Saudi regime’s brutal war on Yemen and the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi.

We are working with Newcastle Fans Against Sportswashing, Equidem and concerned football fans on how to oppose Saudi Arabia hosting the World Cup – keep an eye on our Twitter page for more on this.

We protested against the Counter Terror Expo

Last month, we went down to the ExCeL centre to protest against the awful Counter Terror Expo. Counter terror powers are used to criminalise communities and, increasingly, protesters. Under terror laws pro-Palestinian protesters have been arrested, the Prevent strategy is a racist endeavour and counter-terror powers have been used on our borders. The counter terrorism narrative is used to demonise, harass and criminalise minoritised communities, especially those from the Palestinian or Kurdish communities.

We went down with CAAT and Netpol to let the public know about the worrying nature of the event, highlight the arms companies that were attending and carrying out a bit of street theatre, which you can see here.

What we were not expecting was to be invited inside, which led to CAAT’s media coordinator and Netpol’s Campaign Coordinator being given a tour of the Expo. You can read the blog post about their surreal visit and the inaccurate security briefing given about CAAT’s media coordinator here. Declassified went inside as well and you can read their take on this disturbing expo here.

We joined a range of groups to discuss a campaign against the Saudi World Cup

We joined an online meeting with other concerned groups and football fans to discuss building a coalition to oppose the World Cup being hosted by Saudi Arabia in 2034. Also in attendance were Newcastle Fans Against Sportswashing and Equidem, who have just released a report on forced labour in Saudi Arabia that you can find on their website. We discussed the issues around the awarding of the tournament to Saudi Arabia and various ideas for a campaign to oppose it. There are plans for another wider meeting in September so please reply to this email if you want to get involved in the campaign.

Join us to say no to another arms fair

Join us on June 19^th to protest against another arms fair taking place at the ExCeL centre. This event will bring together arms dealers, military delegations and government officials. These sort of events are crucial to the smooth running of the arms trade. Much of the equipment on display is designed to kill, injure and oppress people.

Join us to say no to this heinous event. Come out of Custom House DLR and follow the signs to the ExCeL centre. Full details are here and there is a Facebook event to share as well.

We marked nine years of the war on Yemen

On March 26th, some thirty campaigners from London CAAT and friends marked nine years of the war in Yemen with a vigil outside Downing Street.

They heard from speakers including Mayer Wakefield from Stop the War, Andrew Feinstein from Shadow World Investigations, Insiya Raja from Bahraini Institute for Rights and Democracy, and Ahmad Algohbary, a freelance Yemeni journalist.

Speakers made the connection between the suffering of the people of Yemen and the billions of pounds of UK weapons sold to the Saudi-led coalition. They also stood in solidarity with Gaza, noting that Yemen has also been bombed by US and UK forces, as part of the wider conflict.

You can hear Ahmad Algohbary’s message here:

The names of some of those killed in the conflict were read out, and the vigil concluded with songs from Raised Voices Choir, and nine minutes silence: one minute for each year of the war.

To quote Ahmad Algohbary, “We won’t stop speaking out, protesting, working hard until peace is a reality”. Thank you to everyone who braved the weather to stand in solidarity with Yemen.

Wevisited arms companies complicit in Israel’s assault on Gaza

On April 6^th, we did a very successful walking tour themed around Israel’s continued brutal bombardment of Gaza. We took around 40 people to three companies complicit in the death and destruction Israel has wreaked on Gaza; Boeing, BAE Systems and L3Harris. At each stop we outlined how these heinous companies supported Israel with weapons and components of the fighter jets used to strafe Gaza and left blue plaques to highlight this as well as doing some chanting to show the public we were opposing these companies’ complicity in the ongoing genocide. We have done walking tours several times before but for the first time, the police deemed it necessary to follow us around for the entire tour ‘for our protection’ – ludicrous waste of their time and unnecessarily intimidating.

Launch event of report on policing of Palestine demos

Sign up for the online launch of an in-depth report from Netpol on the policing of the recent Palestine protests in England and Wales. It takes places on Thursday May 30^th, 6.30pm – 8pm. You can book your free livestream ticket here.

Stand in solidarity with the people of Yemen

March 26^th 2015 saw the start of the Saudi-led coalition’s war on Yemen. Since then the people have endured nine years of bombardment and a devastating human toll. Thousands of Yemeni civilians have been killed by Saudi bombs, facilitated by UK arms sales. The UN estimates that 377,000 war related deaths occurred by the end of 2021. Over 150,000 of these deaths were the direct result of the armed conflict In total the UK has supplied at least £28 billion worth of arms to the Saudi-led coalition attacking Yemen. The war in Yemen has caused one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.

Join us at 6pm on Wednesday March 26^th outside Downing Street to stand in solidarity with the people of Yemen and commemorate all the lives unnecessarily lost in this brutal war. Full details can be found here.

Join us for a walking tour of arms companies complicit in Israel’s assault on Gaza

On January 26^th the International Court of Justice found that there is a plausible risk of Genocide in Gaza. As Israel’s cruel campaign in Gaza continue, with the horrifying prospect of ground invasion in Rafah, we are putting on this walking tour to introduce people to some of the arms companies in our midst that have facilitated the obscene collective punishment on Gaza’s civilian population. Come along to find out more about these heinous companies and get inspired to take action against their complicity in one of the great crimes of our time.

The tour will be on April 6^th at 2pm. Please register for the tour here so we can manage numbers.

Say no to the annual arms dealer dinner!

On January 30^th the UK arms trade will hold its annual fancy black tie dinner in central London. This dinner will bring together arms dealers, MPs and military personnel to schmooze, swill champagne, and feast on expensive food. We cannot think of many more immoral and callous things to do than gather to toast their immoral and destructive business, particularly at a time of ongoing conflict in Gaza.

The companies at this dinner have supplied weapons used by Israel in their ongoing bombardment of Gaza, sold military equipment to the Saudi-led coalition for the war that has devastated Yemen, and facilitated oppression in Bahrain. These companies cause so much death, destruction and misery around the world.

Their deadly business cannot go unchallenged. Bring your placards, noise and passion to oppose this horrendous event. More details can be found here. The venue is not something they announce publicly so keep checking this page for details of the location.

London CAAT meetings

As we move into the new year, our meetings will remain on the third Tuesday of every month at 6.30pm and are still taking place online. At present, we’re having a look forward to the next year and have lots of exciting ideas for actions and targets so do come along to get involved! If you want to attend a meeting, please email us at londoncaat at riseup.net and we will send you details.

As a flavour of the things we got up to last year, we organised a vigil to mark the anniversary of the start of the war on Yemen, made a film about the role the UK played in the Syrian Civil War and the deadly effect of militarised borders in the region (see the film here and a panel discussion about the film here), ran a campaign about the BAE Systems advert at Westminster tube (see some street theatre we did here!), held a walking tour visiting some of the arms companies that exhibited at the heinous DSEI arms fair and organised demos about the proposed visit of the Saudi Crown Prince. So all in all a busy year challenging the evils of the arms trade and we plan more of the same this year!

The UK government should not be hosting Mohammed bin Salman

The UK government will be hosting Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman this autumn. The Crown Prince is the architect of the war on Yemen, which has killed thousands of people and led to one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. US intelligence agencies concluded that bin Salman approved the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi. His regime tortures and executes dissidents, most recently sentencing someone to death for tweets against corruption in the country. The government should not be laying out the red carpet for MBS and should in fact cut off all relations and stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

Join us on September 27^th at 6pm outside Downing Street to call on the UK government to cancel the visit and work to hold MBS to account for his human rights abuses and orchestration of the war on Yemen. This visit sends the wrong message and it must be stopped. Full details here and you can also share the Facebook event.

Join the resistance to the DSEI arms fair

The DSEI arms fair is back in east London this month and so is the resistance to it. Military delegations from human-rights abusing regimes such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Israel will be networking with arms companies and doing deals that will lead to more death and destruction globally. This is where war starts but also where we can try and stop it.

There are a range of action against the fair, covering both the fair’s set up week and the week of the fair itself – the protests will last from September 4^th to 15^th. There is a peace pilgrimage from Oxford to the site of the fair starting on September 5^th, Palestine Solidarity Campaign have organised a Stop DSEI vigil on September 5^th, a festival of resistance is taking place on September 9^th and there is a Migrant Justice day on September 12^th. This is just a flavour of the actions taking place – check out the Stop the Arms Fair website for more details.

The DSEI arms fair is back. And so is the resistance to it!

The DSEI arms fair is returning to the ExCeL centre next month. Arms companies will be descending on east London for this fair of death and destruction. They will be joined by military delegations from countries with shocking human rights records or those involved in conflict. This is where war starts but also where we can try and stop it.

The Stop the Arms Fair network have helped organise a range of action against the fair, covering both the fair’s set up week and the week of the fair itself – the protests will last from September 4^th to 15^th. Actions include a Palestine Solidarity Campaign Stop DSEI vigil on September 5^th, a No Faith in War day on September 7^th and a Migrant Justice day on September 12^th. There are of course loads more actions taking place so check out the Stop the Arms Fair website for more details.

We visited arms companies that will be at DSEI!

We took twenty people on a walking tour around some of the arms companies that will be at DSEI as well as a couple of other organisations involved in the arms trade. In what could be at best described as variable weather!, we visited Boeing, Buckingham Palace (the Royals have a long history of complicity in and support for the arms trade), BAE Systems, Leonardo, UKTI-DSE (the government’s arms export promotion unit) and L3 Harris. London CAAT members talked about these organisation’s weapons or support for the arms trade and the impact their deadly trade has had globally. We also left blue plaques at each site to highlight an aspect connected to each place – you can see one of those above. It was a sobering but illuminating day and people went away with anger and fervour in their hearts to continue to oppose this deadly trade. We will be putting together a brochure of the talks so if you would like a copy, please email us at [email protected].

A walking tour that will cover some of the arms companies exhibiting at the DSEI arms fair

The DSEI arms fair is a massive bonanza of death and destruction. Arms companies will be there to hawk their deadly wares to military delegations from countries with awful human rights records or involved in conflict. It is unfortunately returning to London in September so we thought it would be a good idea to put on a walking tour to highlight some of the arms companies that will be at the fair.

We will visit these companies’ offices, hear about their disgraceful work, and get inspired to take against the heinous monstrosity that is DSEI. Join us on August 5^th at 2pm – more details and how to sign up here. You can also share our Facebook event.

Plans to oppose the fair are already taking shape – check out the Stop the Arms Fair website for more details about that and email [email protected] if you want to get more involved in planning the opposition to it.

We handed in our petition about BAE’s ad on the tube to the Mayor

Last month, we popped into City Hall to hand in our 450+ petition calling on the Mayor and TfL to stop BAE System’s advertising deal with London Underground. BAE are a company heavily complicit in the war on Yemen through billions of weapons sales to the Saudi regime not to mention their involvement in nuclear missile submarines and the Eurofighter Typhoon combat aircraft programme.

As London CAAT members commented, it is outrageous that an arms company can have an advert in such a public space, especially on so close to government. We handed in the petition and did some leafleting around the nearby DLR station. You can read more about this here and watch a video of the hand in here.

The petition has closed but you can still email your support for removing BAE Systems ads from the Tube to the Mayor Sadiq Khan at [email protected].

‘Arms Sales to Dictators, Displacement, and Militarised Borders’ film launch

In April, we held a launch event for our film ‘Arms Sales to Dictators, Displacement, and Militarised Borders’. The film covers UK government and the UK arms industry’s involvement in and around the Syrian Civil war, arms sales to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whose border guards shoot at and kill Syrians trying to flee, and finally the UK’s support of a militarised borders policy in Lebanon and Jordan. We had a fascinating panel discussion with illuminating and wide-ranging contributions from Matt Broomfield and Les Levidow from Peace in Kurdistan Campaign for a political solution of the Kurdish Question – big thanks go to them. You can watch the panel event here and watch the film itself here. Thank you again to Rainbow Collective for making the film.

Taking our petition about BAE Systems advertising on the Tube to City Hall

We have been running a campaign to get the advert for the heinous arms company BAE Systems removed from Westminster tube station. A company that is heavily complicit in the war on Yemen has no place on the underground. This advert is clearly directed at politicians and is just propaganda for BAE’s dangerous wares. London Underground should not be taking money from arms dealers for advertising to promote their deadly products.

BAE Systems has been a major weapons supplier to the Saudi-led coalition fighting a deadly civil war in Yemen, selling over £25 billion during the 8 years of the conflict. The war has seen over 377,000 dead as  a result of the conflict, including more than 8,000 civilian casualties of the bombing. Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain are key parts of this coalition.

On Wednesday June 21^st at 4pm we will be handing the petition into City Hall. This is therefore your last chance to sign the petition and show the strength of feeling against the fact that BAE are allowed to have such a prime piece of advertising space so close to Parliament. The petition can be found here. You can also join us for the hand in if you want – please email londoncaat at riseup.net and we can confirm where we will meet.

Arms Sales to Dictators, Displacement, and Militarised Borders: UK Arms sales in and around Syria film launch event, April 24^th

We have made a film about the UK government and the UK arms industry’s involvement in and around the Syrian Civil war. It critically tracks the UK government’s issuing of chemical licences to companies selling to Bashar al Assad, who would go on to gas Syrians. It then examines arms sales to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whose border guards shoot at and kill Syrians trying to flee and is accused of ethnic cleansing of the Kurdish population. Finally, it looks at how the UK choses to support a policy of militarised borders in Lebanon and Jordan which has made it even harder for Syrians to escape. Sign up for the online launch event here.

We will show the film and then have a panel including speakers from Refugee Action (more to follow) who will talk about the issues raised in the film. There will be time for questions.

The film was made by the wonderful Rainbow Collective and we thank them for their help with making it.

A solemn vigil to mark eight years of the war in Yemen

On March 26^th, we gathered opposite Downing Street to mark eight years of the war in Yemen. This war has devastated the country and killed hundreds of thousands, with the aid of UK weapons. We heard speeches from Sayed AlWadaei (Bahrain Institute of Rights and Democracy), David Wearing (University of Sussex) and Terina Hine (Stop the War Coalition) as well as playing a message from the Yemeni freelance journalist Ahmad Algohbary. The Raised Voices choir provided some songs and we read out the names of people killed in some of the many horrendous bombing raids on the country. We finished with eight minutes of silence, one for each year of the war. We call for an end to the war, an end to UK arms sales to the Saudi-led coalition and justice for the Yemeni people.

We went to Westminster tube to say no to BAE Systems ads on London Underground

BAE Systems have had an advert at Westminster tube for years. We find this unconscionable – why is a company complicit in the war on Yemen through its weapons sales allowed to advertise on the underground system? So we paid a visit to the station but were unfortunately joined by some unpleasant guests. Watch the video here and then sign the petition to get the ad removed. You can also read more about this in this blog post on the CAAT we